Shameful: First slavery. Then segregation. Now Virginia is amending its constitution to ban gay marriage.

"Today is one of the moments of which we will one day be ashamed," said Delegate Adam P. Ebbin, who is the legislature's only openly homosexual member. "We are about to actively write discrimination into our state constitution. I could not stand by while this body again uses gays and lesbians as scapegoats for what has happened to the institution of marriage."

Some of you may think I'm exaggerating with my comparisons to slavery and segregation. But discrimination is discrimination, and it's even worse when it's government sponsored. Virginia is doing everything it can to relegate homosexuals to second-class status.

The rationale used to argue against same-sex marriage is the exact same as what was used 50 years ago to argue against interracial marriage. States passed laws back then preventing two people of different races from getting married. Now such anachronisms have become an embarrassment for those states. And future generations of Americans will look at us with the same disbelief as we look upon racists of the past.